When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Psalm 32:3-4
Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Psalm 51:8
John Newton was right; grace is amazing:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found. ‘Twas blind, but now, I see.
Before it is amazing, grace is painful. Before it heals, grace exposes our failures. As Newton noted, grace does not shy away from revealing our wretchedness. It makes us painfully aware that we are lost and blind.
Conviction is a painful form of grace given to us by a very loving God. It is a precious gift.
Pain makes us aware that something is wrong with us. If you don’t believe that pain is a gift, then you’ve never talked with someone who has Hansen’s Disease. The World Health Organization describes Hansen’s as:
A chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. The disease affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosal surfaces of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes.
Hansen’s greatly reduces the ability to sense pain, especially in the extremities. Without pain, a person with Hansen’s will not make normal adjustments to avoid injury. If you are raking or shoveling by hand, and you begin to sense a painful sore spot or blister developing, you will put on gloves or make a minor adjustment in grip to avoid a worsening injury. If you have suffered an injury, like an area rubbed raw, pain will force you to care for it. If it becomes infected, increased pain will motivate you to seek treatment.
People with Hansen’s don’t have that blessing. Without pain, they continue to injure themselves, and afterward, they ignore injuries where infection and gangrene develop. This often leads to disfigurement and even amputations. Hansen’s disease is known by another name – leprosy – a disease mentioned often in the Bible. If you’ve never thanked God for pain, now would be a good time to start. Here’s an acrostic to help you remember why God gives us the blessing of pain:
Purposefully Address Injuries Now
The most common reason we go to a doctor is because we are experiencing pain. Once diagnosed, a doctor will often need to inflict further pain to bring healing. A surgeon must cut, and a dentist must drill. Pain is almost always required in the healing process. A splinter is painful, and removing it is often even more painful. That’s how it is with healing pain – it is a good pain that moves us toward healing. Ignoring that good pain leads us toward increasing injury.
Convicting grace is pain provided by God’s Spirit to make us aware that there is something wrong with us. Without that pain, we would ignore damaging activity and increased injury. Without pain, we would not seek healing. Again, pain is a blessing.
God sent Nathan to King David to inflict the pain of exposure, consequence, and fallout. Jesus confronted Simon Peter, and it hurt, but the pain was necessary to move him out of the pain of despair and into the healing of restoration.
As I sat in a chapel at kids’ camp, God’s Spirit was bringing to my mind all of the ways I had disobeyed and disappointed God. I felt the heavy weight of guilt and shame. It was intense pain, and it remained until I stepped out of my seat and knelt at an altar of prayer, confessing my sin and submitting my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Then it was gone. Without that pain, I would not have responded. Fifty years later, I am still intensely grateful for the pain of God’s convicting grace.
I have experienced the pain of God’s convicting grace many times since then. In fact, every time I step outside of God’s will and plan, His Spirit brings pain into my heart. It remains until I confess and submit. I am grateful for the pain of conviction and the healing grace it leads me toward.
Painkillers are amazing, and I am very thankful they exist. When used properly, they can help us get through a short-term crisis or an untreatable condition. However, they can be dangerous if we use them to mask pain instead of addressing the source of pain.
Is your marriage struggling? That’s painful. Instead of seeking relief through affairs or pornography, it would be much better to purposefully address the injuries in your marriage.
Do you endure a lot of stress at work? That’s painful. Instead of seeking escape through the abuse of alcohol and narcotics, it would be much better to address the injuries being created by your job.
Will addressing the source of pain be painful? It most certainly will, but pain endured in the process of healing is good pain. Listen, you’re going to experience pain either way, but good pain is hopeful as it leads us toward life. Bad pain takes life from us, while good pain restores life to us.
Are you in pain? Get to the root of the problem and purposefully pursue healing. Do it now. If you don’t, the methods you use to mask the pain will lead to greater injury.
